Service charge on bill

[Hollychristmasjoy]

I thought of this from the back of a thread I read on here recently and it really is a first world problem! So sorry in advance.

When splitting the bill do you also split the service charge equally or go to the faff of working out your own %.

I recently went out for a meal with friends for one of their birthdays. My friend is a chef at this restaurant and gets 40% off the total bill. It’s not a cheap place to eat but not the ritz either. For example, my main was £30.

I had a starter, main, pudding and 2 cocktails.

Birthday girl had the same as me.

Friend 1 had a main and 2 cocktails.

Friend 2 had just her main and drank tap water.

On top of the above we also got given a extra 2 cocktails each for free because it was my friends birthday.

The bill came to approx £230. The service charge was 12.5% and the amount stated was pre discount, not after (I’m not complaining about this) so approx £28 ish.

Everyone paid for what they ate and drank after the 40% was removed but we split the service charge equally.

Friend 2 only owed £10 for her meal (after discount) as that’s all she had and she had a cheaper item on the menu.

But When collecting the cash I said It was £10 + £7 for the service charge… Now I think for a split second she was about to say something but I’m unsure if I imagined it although it’s got me wondering if she thought it was unfair.

I’m wondering if what I did was right… as technically the service charge was only higher as the rest of us had more but at the same time it seems extreme to start splitting the service charge by %. It also never crossed my mind that it would be seen as unfair until my friend hesitated.

So WIBU to split it equally? And before anyone mentions it ..no I wouldn’t ever ask them to remove a service charge unless the service was terrible! and I certainly wouldn’t do it in my friends place of work.

Absolutely over a fiver. The friend was drinking tap water, ffs.

…meant in response to AtwilightRebellion’s “Over a fiver” and laughing emoji.

The easiest and fairest is

Everyone pays for their own stuff plus 12.5%.

So if tap water friends bill was £30, her total bill is £33.75.

Splitting the service change separately is unnecessary and over-complicated.

Surely a service charge doesn’t just cover the waiting staff serving you. Part of it is the cost of the staff you don’t see, front of house and in the kitchen, the cleaning crew dealing with the restaurant and the kitchen, the cost of good table settings with decent linen and napkins etc etc . Not to mention the “free cocktails”, someone is paying for them believe me!

I don't like to pfaff around splitting bills but have never come across the idea that the services charge would be divided separately

I'd rather go to a restaurant that I could afford than go through the places of working out staff discounts.

The pleasure for me is in the company.

I really don’t understand why people are so worried about the service charge! Didn’t the courts rule a few years ago that unless it’s stated , you don’t have to pay them?

Lots of restaurants stick 10% on as a service charge. You don’t have to pay this.

A hairdresser who charges £60 to cut your hair doesn’t automatically charge you an extra £6 do they ?

If a restaurant bill came to £400, the service charge would be £40. That’s almost half a days take home pay for lots of people.

I don’t go to any restaurants where a waitress or waiter is worth £40 quid for table service.

In general good etiquette is not to use your friend to subsidise your bill. So if yours is one of the higher bills you calculate shares based on what is ordered. The only person who should ever suggest just splitting a cost like this equally is the person with the lowest bill.

so absolutely fine if tap water friend has suggested it. But as you did the maths you’re responsible for not taking the piss. Which you did a bit. She ended up subsidising you and birthday girl.

@JustAnotherViper Agreed, person calculating should never calculate in a way that they end up paying less than their fair share. Subsidising a friend should be entirely one's own decision.

Bit late to this but YABVU.
It doesn't matter how much money you think friend has in the bank, on this occasion she chose to eat one course only and drink tap water.

I'm glad you had a good time and enjoyed yourself, but you don't make someone else pay a large percentage of what is your service charge. Cocktails take a long time to make, clearly 3 courses plus cocktails requires the serving person to come over to the table many more times than one main course.

Rude on your behalf and if I was your friend, I wouldn't be rushing out for dinner with you again.

You are talking as if she paid for my whole meal. It was a fiver at most she would of overpaid by and only half of that would of been mine so we are talking £2.50.

Shes more then welcome to work out the bill and let everyone else know what they owe but she doesn’t. I’m left to do it every meal so if she or anyone else in the group don’t like the way Iv split it then they can step up and take over but they don’t. I only questioned it this once as we don’t normally have a service charge on the bill.

If you like to throw away friendships over the sake of a fiver then that’s on you. In friendship groups things normally swing in roundabouts and work themselves out. I cut her hair for free every other month and colour it a couple of times a year but I’m sure she has her finger hovering over the block button over this incident.

@Hollychristmasjoy

You're being ridiculous.

Your friends bill should have been £10 plus £1.25. LOL charging her £7.

She pays 12.5% of her bill. You pay 12.5% of yours.

Your way of totting it up is all wrong.

If anyones ruining a friendship over a fiver, that would be you.

Of course it would be.

MN is pure gold. 😂

Still laughing over a fiver.

The lady had a fab night out for 17 pounds.

OP, MN is full of begrudgers. Tight beyond anything I have ever experienced in rl.

They use words like grabby and cheeky fuckers.

Bored and tight folk who spend their time shouting down others.

People knowingly not paying their way are the tight ones

The OP was about her dinner experience. The friend benefited massively.

A 7 pound tip has been debated.

Cringe.

A night out, dinner and cocktails. 17 pounds.

Yet you all bicker and quibble.

I am properly thankful I don't have friends like those with their calculators here.

But that's just the issue. The friend paying £17 dd not have cocktails. She drank water and had one main dish costing £10. A £7 tip seems an excessive amount to pay for OPs company.

Wtf… ‘for my company’

Honestly… She paid an extra £5. Only half would of been mine. So £2.50. Its hardly excessive. Some of the words used on here by posters are unbelievable over a few quid 😂

She clearly thinks my company is worth it though as we have already booked our next meal in.

So So true!

But she did. OP says She drank the 2 free cocktails

Yea but everyone had the two free cocktails. Others ordered more on top.

similar issue I had with a now ex friend that happened a few times. Ordered take away a few times as they didn’t bring their own lunch and refuse to do so and then if I brought my own they would moan they wouldn’t/couldn’t eat. So I stopped bringing lunch and ordered and the CF calculated the costs and then stuck all the delivery charge on me. Occasionally other people on the studio would join in the takeaway but I got stuck with the delivery cost.

Personally the charge wasn’t an issue it’s the way she went about just aplittting the cost that way. That and a few similar issues where they would suggest going somewhere and then once sorted always ask for a lift even when going to pick her up was in the complete other direction.

I’ve found people who are fine to push the cost into someone else because it’s only a fiver or only a small amount are people who often take liberties with other people and use other people with no remorse for their own gratification (or as long as they get their gratification)

AhNowTed your calculation is wrong. It's 12.5% of the original cost of the meal which was around £16

@Funkyslippers

It doesn't matter what the total was. The point being everyone pays 12.5% of their own bill.

I'm part of a large regular group. Some of us can afford the largesse of covering the bill, others can't and those of us who can are mindful of that.

A % of your bill is the fair way.